Skylanders NG: Reborn
by Magicanus
Summary: Fourteen years after the events of Trap Team, a new threat rises, one worse than any the universe has ever seen. Now, it's up to the children of the Skylanders to defeat this threat. But in order to achieve this these new Skylanders must master the powers of...the Reborn.(on hiatus)
1. Prologue

Skylanders: Reborn

Prologue

_Fourteen years ago, the dark portal master known as Kaos destroyed Cloudcracker Prison, home to the most notorious villains in the world in order to strenthen his dark army. In the process, the Trap Masters were sent to Earth, where they were found by Leo and Madeline, who turned out to be portal masters. Using the Traptanium Portal, they sent the Trap Masters back to Skylands, where they helped the other Skylanders there to capture the escaped villains using pieces of traptanium known as 'traps'._

_Eventually, Kaos himself was trapped in the Black Kaos Trap and imprisoned with the other villains in the Villain Vault. Now, Cloudcracker Prison has been restored, and Leo, Madeline, and the Trap Masters live there as it's faithful protectors, just as the rest of the Skylanders and their portal masters protect all of Skylands. This prison is where our story begins, and where the story of another ends..._

"Leo!" called Snap Shot. The blue crocagator had been looking through Cloudcracker Prison for the human portal master of the Trap Team all morning. Snap Shot had to give the weekly report on the prisoners to Leo, and currently the water Trap Master was walking down a hall leading to the east tower, a place that Snap Shot knew the portal master often went to think.

Snap Shot was wondering what Leo had to be thinking about at the time as he walked down the hall, when he suddenly heard footsteps coming towards him from behind. This sound was followed by a young silver blonde haired woman wearing a silver dress, a white cape with a depiction of a pair of golden scales on the back, and a pair of silver colored sandals. The female human also had a silver necklace and several rings on each finger, all embedded with crystals ranging in colors from deep violet to golden yellow. Most people would assume that these crystals were just jewelry, but Snap Shot knew that they were actually traptanium crystals designed to capture any villains in an emerency.

"Hello Snap Shot," said the woman. "Looking for my brother I see."

"Hello Madeline," said Snap Shot. "Yes, I am. It seems that Leo is in the east tower more and more often lately. I'm worried. Remember the last time this happened?"

Madeline nodded. It was hard to forget what happened when the Golden Queen tried to escape six years ago. She made it to the very edge of the island and was just about to teleport away when one of Ka-Boom and Gearshift's hand-made mines that were planted around the outside of the prison suddenly went off and blasted apart the section of the island she was standing on. The piece of the island sank beneath the Sea of Clouds, therefore the Golden Queen was assumed dead. Leo had went to the east tower everyday for a month beforehand.

"Meaning that something will probably happen," said Madeline sadly. Hearing her tone of voice, Snap Shot knew he had to cheer her up. Despite the fact that she was a grown woman at the age of 24, Snap Shot still often thought of Madeline as the 10-year old girl who was just learning to control her magic powers. Whenever he saw her down like this, he felt a fatherly instinct to raise her spirits up.

"Don't you worry, Madeline," Snap Shot said with a light smile. "The Skylanders and the Trap Team can handle anything that comes our way", he continued as they approached the east tower. "Besides, what's the worst that could happen?"

OOOOOOOO

Leo knew the worst was about to happen. He had known it for a quite a while now. Ever since the day he had passed the cell he had always hoped to avoid. Ever since he had heard the voice that had warned him of an impending disaster. Ever since he had run into Kaos.

The portal master had been wandering around the lower dungeons of the prison looking for Wildfire, Bushwhack, and Wallop, who were doing cell inspection that day but had gotten lost because one of the maps of the prison were missing. Wildfire had insisted that they go anyway because he thought he could remember the way. That was a mistake, and so Leo had volunteered to look for them after Blastermind found the map under the front desk at the north entrance. And as Leo was walking through one of the deeper parts of the dungeon, he passed a cell that a voice spoke from...

"_You must be Leo. It's nice to finally meet you," said a voice from the cell to his right. Leo didn't recognize the voice at all, but that didn't surprise him since he hadn't been down in the prison dungeons for years. Prisoners' voices could change drastically in that time period. It was the only cell in the corridor, and Leo had thought it was empty. Even directly in front of it, he still couldn't see anyone inside._

"_You must be pretty good at hiding," Leo said calmly. "Although, you know there's no need to hide _in _the cell, right? Especially if you reveal yourself anyway."_

"_I'm not hiding," said the voice. "It's just that after all these years, the memory and fear of me has faded away. Probably even the villains of this very prison don't even remember me, despite the fact that I was the one who freed them all those years ago."_

"_Based on that description, I assume your Kaos," said Leo. "And now that I know that, I don't see any reason to talk to you anymore." Leo started walking away, but then a dirty and gnarled hand shot out of the cell and grabbed his wrist, and pulled him closer to the cell bars. And although he still couldn't see Kaos' face, Leo could see his eyes. Eyes filled with loathing and evil so strong, Leo knew he would have nightmares about them for weeks on end._

"_This is a warning boy," said Kaos. "Soon this prison will be destroyed along with almost everyone in it, including me and every other prisoner. This can not be stopped. When this happens, you will face the most terrible choice a portal master can make."_

"_Like I believe that," said Leo as he pulled his hand away. He tried to sound confident, but his voice had a hint of doubt in it. "You're just trying to scare me into doing something stupid."_

_There was a slight movement, and Leo could tell Kaos was smirking. "Believe what you will," said Kaos as he slunk back to a dark corner of the cell. "All will be proven once He comes..."_

Suddenly, Leo was shocked out of his memories by a familiar voice behind him. "There you are Leo," said the voice, which was revealed to be Snap Shot when Leo turned around.

"Ah, Snap Shot," said Leo as he recovered himself. "Have you come to give me the weekly report?"

"Yes, he has," said another familiar voice from the staircase. A few seconds later, Leo's sister Madeline followed, gasping for breath. "And I'm sure that he would like to give it to you someplace else besides a tower with a lot of stairs next time. Right, Snap Shot?"

"Not really. I actually appreciate the work out," said Snap Shot, earning him a glare from the female portal master. "Anyway, now that you're both here, I can give the report",continued the Trap Master as he pulled a small scroll from between the blue traptanium bow and arrow strapped to his back.

Leo, groaned silently. Even after fourteen years of being the co-portal master for the Trap Team, he still hated to listen to the weekly reports. Yet he also knew that it was important to listen to this. So although he was groaning inwardly, Leo was attentive as Snap Shot unrolled the scroll and began to read the report.

"First off on the agenda is the Chompy Mage," Snap Shot began. "For the past week, he has been unable to move from his bed due to what appears to be severe phantom pains. I suggest..."

Suddenly, Snap Shot was interrupted by a flash of black light coming from the window, followed by a horrible, monstrous roar...

A/N

A/N

**Hello, Skylanders enthusiasts everywhere! I am Magicanus, and the 'a' is pronounced like in 'major' and the 'g' is pronounced like in 'giant'. Just wanted to clear that up.**

"Nobody really cares."

**And please give a not-so-warm welcome to Foaly, my censuring centaur(just came up with that). He's from another dimension inside of a book, or rather book series. I pull a lot of characters out of books. So much that I decided to make a game of it. Every ten chapters, I will pull a character out of a book, and whoever puts the right answer in the review first gets a mystery prize! **

"It's a silly and pointless game really."

**You know, maybe I shouldn't have brought you out during the earlier chapters of the fifth book. You're much more mellow after getting married at the end of the fifth book.**

"You mean...I marry..."

**Yup. Now don't say anymore. I've given enough hints as to which series you come from already.**

"...uh..."

**Anyway, now it's time for the hint to next chapter's title. Just a little thing I do. Keep your guess to yourself, don't put it in the review. Now here it is.  
**  
What is on ship until it is found,  
and when it is seen, the ship has to turn around.

**That's it. Now this is Magicanus saying, Stay magic!**


	2. Stowaways

**Stowaways**

"HYAAH!" yelled Spark as he reared his three golden horns back, grounding to a halt mere inches from the practice dummy. On a nearby rock, another dragon who looked like Spark shook his head.

"You know, Spark," said the dragon, who was none other than Spyro himself. "I'm beginning to think the charge isn't really your thing." Spark, who was laying down panting just a few minutes before, suddenly snapped to attention at those words.

"No! I really think I can do it. I just need to practice more," said Spark. In reality, this was not true, and Spark knew it. His horns, which curved back from the base, were incapable of ramming into anything. But he couldn't say that. Spark wanted to be more like his father. He wanted to be just as good at defending Skylands as he was, even if he wasn't a purple dragon like him.

Spyro sighed. "Spark, everybody has to choose their own path. Just remember that, okay?"

"Okay, dad," Spark said without really listening.

"Now lets go back to the Isle of Light. I heard your sister's coming back from her trip today," Spyro said as he took off towards the Core of Light, with Spark close behind.

OOOOOOOO

On an island near the Isle of Light, Angela and Triton Strike were also training. Well, actually Angela and Triton were training, with Triton riding his magic seahorse, Strike. Ever since the gillman-electric eel hybrid had rescued the blue seahorse from a band of Water Spell Punks and started riding him, he had kept referring to himself as Triton Strike. Angela thought it was strange, but at least it made sense to ride a giant floating seahorse. She heard once that a retired Skylander used to ride on a skeletal ostrich named Fright. Now _that_ was strange.

Currently, the two were at one of the race tracks on the island, which was called Dojo Isle and was used by the Skylanders as a training grounds.

"Alright, once around the track," said the gillmen. "Although, we still don't see why you think you can beat us." Angela grimaced at the statement. Triton, or Triton Strike also referred to himself as "we", "us", and other similar titles. She found it _very _disturbing. Despite that, she still kept her competitive nature.

"You think you can beat me?" Angela said defiantly. "You couldn't beat a turtle!"

"I heard that!" said a blue turtle who was spinning in a vortex nearby, fighting with a giant mutated tree creature with horn like branches on it's head. Right when he said this, the tree creature suddenly knocked the turtle out of the vortex, which immediately disappeared upon the turtle being hit.

Angela frowned. "How's Warnado able to hear through the tornado?" said Angela. Then she looked up. "And why does the title say 'Stowaways'?"

"We have no idea what you're talking about. And we probably don't want to know anyway," Triton said. "Shouldn't we get to the race now?"

"Yeah you're right. We need to draw attention to ourselves so that people don't care about the minor characters," Angela deadpanned.

Both Triton and Strike stared at her for a few seconds before simultaneously shaking there heads and turning back to the track. "We don't want to know," said Triton, with Strike snorting his agreement.

As the metal-winged unicorn-phoenix-dragon hybrid also turned toward the starting line, a mabu in a black and white striped referee uniform raised a checkered flag in his hand. "Ready... Set...Go!" said the mabu, bringing his flag down. Triton Strike and Angela shot out from the starting line.

With Angela's mechanical wings pushing her forward, she was able to get to the first turn of the track in mere moments. With her yellow feathers streaming out behind her, her golden scales flashing in the sun, and her triangular muzzle pointing forward, she looked like a ray of pure heavenly sun light. Of course, this vision was marred when she raced past the turn and smashed into the wall that separated the track from a battle arena next to it. The force of impact was so strong, it reduced the wall to nothing but rubble, yet strangely Angela rose out of it with nothing but a few scratches which were already healing somehow.

"Darn author distracting me with an awesome description of me," mumbled Angela as she climbed from the rubble.

As Triton Strike passed by Angela, who he was able to almost keep up with, he shook his head. "And that's why she never beats us," said Triton, as Strike nodded his head and continued speed-floating toward the finish line. By the time Angela had extricated herself from the debris, all of her scratches were healed and Triton Strike had already crossed the finish line.

At that moment, the four Skylanders in that particular arena came over to check what was happening. Not that this was new to them or anyone else. Angela had been challenging Triton to a race every week since he started riding Strike. Or as Drobot, Angela's godfather said "Partially cybernetic organism, designated 'Angela', has endeavored to request an examination of speed between her and amphibious organism, designated 'Triton', who has recently requested the designated call-sign 'Triton Strike', every seven units of time designated 'days' for the same measurement of time as the previously mentioned 'Triton' has possessed the magically-enhanced organism designated 'seahorse' and requested call-sign 'Strike'". Of course, nobody really understood what he said except for Angela and his own son Lynx, who just happened to be one of the ones there.

"You know Angela, I'm beginning to think that you really hate this wall," the sphinx-dragon hybrid joked.

"Shut up Lynx!" countered Angela, as she got up.

"I'm just joking," defended Lynx. "Lighten up, will ya?"

"I agree," said the phoenix-dragon hybrid coming up behind Lynx. Angela quietly groaned. It was Sunburn, the fire Skylander. And her father. "You need to laugh at these sort of things. That way, when you get into something serious, you can keep your head clear and not get frustrated. You know what they say..."

"'Laugh at the little things, smile at the big things,'" Angela said, repeating a line that her dad had said hundreds of times. "Who besides you even says that?"

Sunburn smiled, or at least as much as one could smile with a beak. "Probably lots of people."

Behind him, what appeared to be a giant tiki mask with a staff came over. "Sparga anga Spyga ooga aga oo," he said while pointing to his wrist. Angela gasped.

"You're right, Double Trouble. I have to get back to the Isle of Light to meet up with Spark!" Angela said before flying off to the Isle of Light.

Sunburn, Lynx, Triton, Strike, and Terrafin(who had just come over)all stared after her.

"Man, Sunburn," said Terrafin. "That is one tough kid you got there. Down one minute, up the next." Sunburn just nodded silently.

"I think we'll go back, too," said Triton as he and Strike wordlessly went after Angela.

OOOOOOOO

When Angela got back to the Isle of Light, she found Spark arguing with his father Spyro. The sight was so strange, she stopped flying for a few seconds and nearly fell into the Sea of Clouds. _Spark never argues with his father,_ thought Angela as she regained her balance and began to fly over again. Spark and Spyro were on the beach of the Isle of Light, right next to the door that led to the underworld. By the time she landed, Spyro had already walked away towards the train tracks, leaving Spark to curse under his breath

"Hey Spark what's up," said Angela when she was a few feet behind him. Spark spun around so fast, Angela could barely see him until he stopped.

"Oh, it's you Angela," said Spark when he saw who it was. "How was your race with Triton Strike?"

"Fine, but you're avoiding my question," Angela said, blunt as usual.

Spark sighed in exasperation before saying "My father doesn't want me to go on a mission."

"Spark, you're twelve years old and not even an official Skylander yet," said a voice from behind Angela and Spark. Turning around, they saw that it was Triton and Strike.

"How long have you been there?" asked Angela.

"The entire time," Triton replied, before being interrupted by Spark.

"This isn't just any mission," said Spark. "The Skylanders just got a message from the Swap Force over in Cloudbreak. Nina hasn't returned from the Frostfest Mountains yet, so a squad of Skylanders are being sent there on a ship."

Triton frowned while Strike tilted his head to the side. "Your sister hasn't come back? Wait, why not send them send them via portal?" he asked.

"Because only specially made portals can be used in the Cloudbreak," said Angela. "There's a magic energy field there that disrupts the power of normal portals. Plus, it's better for the story line."

Spark nodded. "Exactly right. Except for the story line part," he said. Triton noticed that Spark's eyes were narrowed in thought, an expression he knew all too well.

"Oh no, Spark," said Triton. "I know that face. You better not be planning what I think you are."

Spark didn't seem to hear him as he said "If it was anywhere other than Cloudbreak, then there's nothing I could do, but since the Skylanders are going on a ship..." At this point, Angela was wearing an excited expression, while both Triton and Strike had the look of ones who were about to jump off a cliff.

"Please don't say it," Triton pleaded.

"I'm gonna stow away on the ship," Spark finally announced. At this, Triton and Strike quickly looked around to make sure nobody else was there. The only other person there was Lefa, a nymph who was the apprentice to Stealth Elf. Thankfully, she was lying on a rock at the other end of the beach.

"Are you insane," whispered Triton. "If you get caught..."

"If _we_ get caught," Angela interrupted. "I'm going too." Spark smiled.

"Welcome aboard," the black dragon said.

"You really are insane. How are you even supposed to sneak on board?" questioned Triton. "You don't know the first thing about stealth."

"Exactly why we need help," Spark said, pointing a claw towards Lefa. Triton was glad for his blue and purple scales, as they hid his blush extremely well. Triton had a bit of a crush on the nymph since she'd joined the Skylanders. It wasn't anything serious though, and he'd been able to ignore it after rescuing Strike, but apparently he still wasn't able to forget about it.

"How do you know she'll come?" asked Triton. Sparx grinned at this.

"Oh, she'll come," he said with absolute certainty. And that was what decided it for both Triton and Strike.

Triton sighed as he prepared to state their decision."...We will come with you," he said in defeat.

"Thank you, Triton," said Spark. Strike snorted in indignation. "...and Strike."

"I'll go ask Lefa," Angela said. "Mostly because I want to be included more in this story." With that, she walked over to Lefa, Spark, Triton, and Strike staring after her.

"Did you understand what she said?" asked Triton. Spark shook his head. "I thought it might have been a dragon thing."

"Nope," said Spark. "It's an Angela thing."

OOOOOOOO

On the cliff above the beach, an invisible and intangible being grinned. "The hand of fate gathers the Reborn together. Soon, I will be reawakened. And then I can finally get some meat loaf." And with that deadpan, the being vanished.

A/N

A/N

**Sorry about taking so long. I honestly didn't mean for it take so long. Two weeks! Anyway, I really like what I did with Angela. Yes, she's kind of an attention hog, but at least she's not as much of one as Foaly.**

"I heard that!"

**Good, because I meant it. Oh, and if you're wondering about the whole portal thing, I just thought that there could be a reason why the portal in Swap Force was so different from the portals of the first two games. I mean, the one in Trap Team has a reason for being so different. Why can't the one in Swap Force have a special reason?**

"It's just better for the plot line, really."

**Nobody asked you, Foaly! On a completely different note, I will not be giving a riddle to the next chapters title in this author's note. Mostly because I can't come up with one that goes with:**

**The Laws of Fear**

**Yeah, you can tell you'll like this one Undead Prowess. It's all about the Undead! And with that, this is Magicanus saying, Stay magical!(slightly different sign off from last week, but that one was kind of a mistake.)**

**Edit: I kept mixing up Triton and Strike's names, so I apologize if that caused confusion. It's fixed now.**


	3. The Laws of Fear

**The Laws of Fear**

_Target: Captain Skull Head_

"Move it you lazy sea-slugs!" yelled the undead pirate at the steering wheel of the ship. He had a blackened skull for a head with one red eye, a golden tooth, and a silver-colored eye-patch. His attire was the usual clothes of a pirate captain, and he had a pure black hook instead of a left hand. The pirate was calling down to the crew of the ship, the Siren Skull, which had just successfully raided a nearby mabu village, killing all the inhabitants in the process, and were trying to out-race a storm heading towards them.

_Fears: Sailing through a storm._

"Captain!" yelled the skeleton pirate in the Crow's Nest on top of the mast. "There's a storm ahead! Even bigger than the one behind us!"

"WHAT!" yelled Skull Head, taking out a telescope. Looking through it, he saw that the skeleton was right; the storm ahead was massive and was coming fast. Suddenly, a shape flew across his field of vision, causing him to stumble backwards.

_Crimes: Numerous accounts of raiding, murder, and theft._

Before he could have another thought on the matter, Captain Skull Head heard a scream. A moment later, the skeleton that was in the Crow's Nest landed right in front of the undead pirate captain. His skull was smashed inward, and a red and black smoke-like substance rose from it. Suddenly, another scream sounded from across the deck.

_Punishment: Execution_

What happened next was a blur of screaming and flailing bodies to Skull Head. The next thing he knew, the air was filled with black undead blood and cut-off body parts like bits of confetti, while the air was filled with the same black and red smoke and the less tangible screams of pain and fear coming from the undead pirates. It was a blood-bath. A massacre.

Seeing this, the cowardly pirate captain ran into his cabin, which was right behind the steering wheel of the ship. Locking the door behind him, he grabbed the gun next to the door and turned back to his cabin. It was a simply furnished place, with only a desk in the middle of the room, a chair behind the desk, and a bed at the very back. The windowless walls were covered with pictures of the many villages he'd attacked, each one taken right before he'd burned it down and killed all it's inhabitants. All of the walls were covered from top to bottom.

Captain Skull Head ran behind his desk with the gun in hand, and crouched down behind it. He was in that position for about an hour, listening to the screams of his fellow undead pirates and, after a while, the rumble of thunder. He knew the storms heading towards the ship wouldn't be far off. Then...silence. No more noise except the thunder. Not a single scream.

Peaking his head over the edge of his desk, he saw the door opened. In the threshold, a cloaked figure stood, carrying a huge double-edged sword made of a pure black metal in their right hand. Seeing this, Skull Head leaped up and pointed his gun at the dark figure.

"Stay back!" he yelled. The cloaked figure didn't seem to hear him, as they began to swing their sword like a baton, ripping the wooden floor like a plow across a field, and walked towards him slowly.

"I said, stay back!" Skull Head shouted before shooting at the figure. In an instant, a pale-blue hand shot out of the figures cloak and grabbed the bullet in midair between the thumb and forefinger. The skeleton pirate dropped his gun in shock. "What are you?"

The cloaked figure didn't answer, instead flinging the bullet away to the side and continuing forward towards Skull Head. Backing away, the pirate began to beg for his life, mumbling about all the things he didn't get to do and that he would change his ways if he could just be spared right now. When the cloaked figure got to the desk, they slammed the sword down in front of them, splitting the desk in two, and Skull Head began to just plain scream. Finally, the cloaked figure stopped right in front of the screaming pirate, heaved the sword above them, and brought it down upon Skull Head...

OOOOOOOO

Outside of the ship, the two storms in front of and behind the ship converged upon each other, and the Siren Skull was caught between them. Moments later, all that was left of the ship was a few charred and blackened pieces of debris and several smoldering pieces of bone.

OOOOOOOO

Reapers' Hall was a large place. In fact, some say it's the largest structure in the underworld. Though others argue that since it technically resides in one of the pocket dimensions of the underworld and doesn't really have any mass for the same reason, it can't be counted as the largest or even a structure _in _the underworld. This is where, an hour after the destruction of the Siren Skull, the cloaked figure who was responsible for it appeared. Quite literally appeared, as the cloaked figure had materialized out of nowhere in one of the side entrances of Reapers' Hall._  
_

The entrance itself was fairly big, with black metal columns on either side and a dark marble floor carved in silver with a strange and intricate design. Torches were placed on poles stationed between each column, and the flames were a dark purple color. At the far end of the room, a marble desk was placed between two hallways. At the desk in front of a strangely shaped computer was what lookedto be a vampire, but who was actually a vampire reaper, signified by the missing pupils in his eyes. Looking up, the silver-haired vampire reaper saw the cloaked figure coming towards him.

"No cloaks in Reapers' Hall," he said. The figure paused, then the cloak appeared to dissolve into tattered bits of shadow, which quickly dissolved as well. The vampire reaper now saw that he was an undead elf with black hair and eyes that seemed to be filled with darkness(a physical trait that wasn't uncommon among reapers). He was wearing black jeans, a plain black shirt, and a black leather jacket. Coming up to the desk, the elf reaper asked for his next assignment.

"Very well," said the vampire. "I'll just need your name."

"Hades," responded the elf. "Hades Necromen."

At the mention of the elf's last name, the vampire reaper paused in his typing. _Can...can it be? Is this the son...of the Skylanders Rider and Hex?, _he thought. Realizing that from the rumors surrounding this particular reaper, the vampire-born reaper decided to look it up on Hades' file. A moment later, the search confirmed it; the vampire reaper was indeed talking to _the _Hades Necromen, and the file also confirmed that he was everything he was said to be. Mostly in the mission that was assigned to him.

"You...you have the Frostfest shade assignment," said the vampire reaper, more than a little surprised. Every reaper in the underworld had heard of that particular mission. Three reapers had already been assigned it. None had come back. What was even surprising was that Hades just nodded at this, almost as though he was glad.

"Excellent. I would have gotten it sooner, but I was busy with other things. Speaking of which...," said Hades, before he pulled out a pure black metal hook from his pocket and handed it to the vampire reaper. "Mind putting this in my locker?"

"I'll make sure it gets there," said the vampire reaper, taking the black hook.

"Good, because if you don't...well, you know how it goes. Right?" Hades asked. The vampire reaper nodded nervously. "Good." Satisfied that he had finished his business, the elf reaper disappeared just as his cloak had. Looking over at Hades file again, the vampire reaper read over it again. When he was finished, only one thought went through his mind.

_May Mortalannis help anyone unlucky enough to come in the way of Hades Necromen..._

A/N_  
_

A/N

**What can I say...? I was thinking of Dragula, by Rob Zombie for the fight scene. Or is it massacre scene? That was both a question and a pun, ergo a very sick pun in this case. I mean, my mind scares me sometimes.**

"It scares me too."

{glares}**Don't test me Foaly. Otherwise, you may find that I can be a lot scarier...**

"{gulps}Noted..."

**Good. Anyway, I just want all you readers out there to know that I am not an "R.L Stein" as some may say. I'm really more of a "Christopher Paolini" when it comes to writing about fighting scenes. I tell it how it is. And if anybody has any complaints about it, read the rating people. I have a reason for making it T. Now for the riddle about next chapter's title:**

When sneaking about,  
Don't be _ out.

**I guess I really like to have people guessing. Like you will once you read the next few sentences. How powerful is Hades? What will happen to Sparx, Triton Strike, Angela, and Lefa? Who is this mysterious, meatloaf-loving being? What are the Reborn? Why am I asking these questions when I already know the answer to them? Where's my sandwhich?! Oh here it is. Where was I? Oh yeah. Read or wait for(depending on when you're reading this)the next chapter to find out. Until then, stay magical!**


	4. Found

**Found**

When Spark had asked Lefa if she wanted to help him, Angela, Triton, and Strike stowaway on to the ship heading to the Frostfest Mountains, she immediately agreed. She was tired of being treated like a little kid by master Stealth Elf. That's why she wanted to go to the Frostfest Mountains. Though, she wished she could have chosen better stowaway partners. It was hard to sneak around with a dragon hybrid with large metal wings.

Triton had decided to fly outside of the ship on Strike so the rest of them could hide better. While Lefa did think it was a good idea, she decided to ask how he could keep Strike from tiring out.

"We'll just use these special pills Pop Fizz invented," he had replied while showing her the pills. "They allow a person to tire ten times slower than usual with only minor side effects. All we have to do is alternate between going in front and behind the ship so we can take breaks at islands to rest. It's a good thing Angela was able to hack into the ship's computer with the technology in her wings and create a map for us, otherwise this couldn't have worked."

_Yes, _thought Lefa. _Without Angela, we would all be doomed. Except that_ with _Angela we will probably be found, _Lefa thought as she silently scolded Angela for banging her wings on the metal wall of the storage area, _again._

They had been stowed away on the ship for three days by then, and still Angela would constantly bang her wings on hundreds of the many metal parts of the ship. Which was basically _everything. _Lefa was quite put up with it. Twice already, they're cover had almost been blown, and it was through sheer luck that they hadn't been completely exposed.

"Can you not fold those wings up or something?" whispered Lefa. "It is getting really annoying with them hitting everything."

"I wish I could," Angela replied. "But the author deems it better for the plot if I didn't have that ability."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Lefa silently screamed.

"It's better just to ignore her," said Spark, trying to get Lefa to calm down. "She never makes sense when she talks like that."

Lefa scowled, but chose not to reply. Spark was right. Nobody understood Lefa. Period. The best thing she could do was keep quiet and hope nobody had heard them speak...

OOOOOOOO

In the hallway outside, two people were listening at the door. One of them was a blue fire sprite dressed in a black body-suit that opened up on the back of her head, and was decorated with metal cuffs, a strangely-shaped belt, and a crown with three spade shaped points. She also wore a black poncho, and a kusari-gama(a pair of hand scythes connected by a chain)with a chain and blades made of blue flames was strapped to her belt.

The other was a dark brown dragoness with golden crystals in place of her wings, mace-shaped tail, stomach scales, spikes, and horns. Her bright, blue eyes flashed with subtle curiosity at the sound of voices inside of the storage bay. Looking up, the dragoness that the fire sprite had already begun walking down the hallway again.

"What are you doing, Infernia?" the dragon asked.

"Going up to report a noise in the storage bay," replied the fire sprite.

"Why?" questioned the dragoness. At this, the fire sprite turned around.

"Because it's the best thing to do, Quartzia," said Infernia.

"No," Quartzia said back. "The best thing to do is to go in there and see what or who's in there ourselves. Besides, what would the Colin say if it turned out to be nothing?"

"The captain would say that we did the right thing of informing him," replied Infernia. "Even if it turned out to be nothing. For all we know, it could just be someone getting a snack."

"You're right, Colin would say that we would be doing the right thing," Quartzia responded, catching Infernia by surprise. "But if it turned out to be something, like stowaways or something, Colin would say that we did great work. Great is better than good, Infernia. It's not rocket science."

Fiera silently groaned after hearing the rest of Quartzia's sentence. "Why can't we just tell the captain about this? It would be so much safer."

"Safer is for beginners," said Quartzia.

"We are beginners. This is our first mission."

"Exactly. And the only reason we're even on this mission is because you're made of fire, and I can make light. To everyone else, you're a walking campfire, and I'm a living flashlight. We need to prove that we're more useful than that. And the only way to do that is by taking matters into our own hands."

"I don't walk. I hover. And can't we do that by alerting the captain to possible stowaways?"

"Yes, but let's take away the 'possible' part first," Quartzia said, nodding toward the doorway.

"Fine," Infernia groaned as she walked over to the door. As she stood in front of the door, she closed her eyes and her face creased in concentration. After a few seconds, the flames in her suit began to move out of the back of her head. A few seconds later, all the flames that made up Fiera's inner body had come out of her body-suit, with two white spots where her eyes would be, while her physical body stood where. Finally, she shrunk and flattened herself, then slid through the crack between the deck and the door.

Inside, Infernia moved along the walls of the storage bay. Sliding around the floors, walls, and ceiling of the room, she soon located three people in the far corner of the room, two of which she knew by name. The one she didn't know was a girl with the green-tinted skin and brown hair, tied into a braid, that was the usual for a forest nymph. She wore a darker green body-suit, a brown sash going from her right shoulder to her left hip that had several throwing knives strapped to it, and brown boots.

One of the other two was Angela, who Infernia knew from the many, many fights Quartzia had with the golden scaled dragon-hybrid. The last one was Spark, who Fiera needed a minute to identify not only because his black scales blended with the shadow of a nearby crate despite the gold of his three horns, claws, spines, chest-plate, and tail-spike, but also because she couldn't believe he was among the stowaways on the ship. From what Infernia knew of the rumors surrounding Spyro's youngest son(which were many), Spark was perhaps the most obedient student of Skylanders Academy that had ever existed, even if he was technically under the apprenticeship of his father full-time nowadays. It was very surprising that Spark would do something like this, something that Infernia would expect out of Spark's older brother Flash, who had been brought along on the mission of finding out what had happened to Spyro's only daughter, Nina.

Suddenly realizing that it didn't matter why he was there, Infernia quickly slid along the ceiling back to the door, thankful for the blue paint-job that made up most of the ship. Once outside the storage room, Infernia quickly shifted her spirit form until she had become the same size as she was before and slid back into her body. As soon as the laast of the flames of Infernia's elemental body had gotten back into her body-suit though, she was immediately interrogated by Quartzia.

"So are there stowaways?" asked Quartzia, to which Fiera nodded. "How many?"

"Three," Infernia told Quartzia, who, despite Infernia trying to keep her voice even, seemed to notice that how nervous she was.

"Anybody we know?" Quartzia asked.

"Yes," Infernia said biting the lip of her outer body.

"Who?" asked Quartzia.

"Weeeeellllllll," said Infernia, drawing out the word. "There's that forest nymph with the ninja outfit, I think she's Stealth Elf's apprentice. What's her name again? Something like Elfa, or Leaf...?"

"Lefa," Quartzia said. "Anyone else?"

"Right that's the one," Infernia said. "There was also Spark."

Quartzia blinked. "I'm sorry, did you say Spark?" inquired Quartzia.

"Yes," Infernia said.

"Like the dragon or..."

"Yes, the dragon."

"You're talking about Spyro's son, right?"

"I don't know any other Spark."

"Spark?" Quartzia said in disbelief.

"Spark." Infernia confirmed, making Crystal stand there for a few seconds until she remembered how many Fiera said there were.

"And the last one?" Quartzia asked.

"You won't like it if I tell you," warned Inferia.

"Who is it?!"

"...Angela..."

Upon speaking this, Quartzia's eyes flared with rage, and she immediately began moving towards the door.

"Wait! What are you doing?!" Infernia exclaimed.

"What else?!" Quartzia yelled. "To show that wingless cyborg who's boss! How dare she come here to ruin this for me?! She is such an attention hog! I'll show her!"

"Um, I think you're more of an attention hog than she is," Infernia said.

"Shut up!" yelled Quartzia. "I'm going in there!"

"Quartzia! No!"

Before Quartzia could open the door(or charge into it, as it were), before Infernia could even stop her, an explosion was heard coming from the main deck. Turning towards the sound, Quartzia and Infernia saw a wall of flames coming down the hall, straight towards them...

OOOOOOOO

Out in the Frostfest Mountains, a single Snow Eagle was sitting on the branch of a tree. It was one of the last of it's species actually, as Snow Eagles were hunted down by cyclopes long ago. This particular member of the rare species was looking up at a nearby ship flying through the skies.

The Snow Eagle hated those machines. They were against nature. _Only feathered-wing-talon-birds should glide-wing-fly through the great-blue-white-dome-sky_, the white bird thought to itself vehemently. Suddenly, something the Snow Eagle saw heading towards the ship before hit the ship, causing it to explode. Frightened, the bird took off, heading towards the home of someone he knew would know what to do in this situation.

Flying through the mountains, the Snow Eagle finally arrived at a grove of trees that were covered with the snow of the eternal blizzard. He landed on the branch of a large pine, where the figure of a boy writing in a pocket journal was sitting on a tree branch next to the one the Snow Eagle had landed on. Screeching a series of chirps at him, the boy sat up.

"What is this about a sky-glide-ship?" the figure asked while continuing to write in the small notebook, his head turned away from the bird. The Snow Eagle responded with another series of chirps.

"I see-hear," the boy said, closing the book and turning to the Snow Eagle. The boy's eyes, in contrast to the shadow that covered the rest of his body, glowed with a strange light that came from the magical winds swirling within them. "Show me."

A/N

A/N

**Wow, I think that this is my longest chapter yet. It's quite impressive if I say so myself. I bet nobody can guess who Quartzia and Infernia's parents are. Wait, nevermind. You probably can tell pretty quickly. I think I gave enough away for people to guess pretty easily.  
Anyway, I know that these past few chapters have been really slow, but I promise you that the action will pick up next chapter. Just bare with me here.  
****Also, you should know that I would appreciate people reviewing me story if you have anything you want to put out there for me. I don't care if it's congratulations, praise, or even flames. As long as I can get advice from it.  
****Feel free to PM me, and Stay Magical!**


	5. A New Friend

**A New Friend**

As Freeze Blade woke up, he was hit in the stomach by a rather large wrench used by a feline mabu boy. Not the best way to wake up. With a yelp, Freeze Blade sat up, clutching the spot on his stomach where the wrench hit him. As soon as he sat up though, the mabu started yelling at him to get up.

"Get up, sleeping beauty!" the mabu yelled. "My ship needs fixing!"

Groaning, Freeze Blade got up. "Colin," Freeze Blade. "Why did you hit me in the stomach?" This question caused the feline mabu to scowl even more.

"Well, I could have hit you in the head, but I needed you to help me repair my ship, even if I hate you," Colin replied. "Also, it's _Captain _Colin to you! Now get up off your lazy arse and help me repair the Dread-Yacht!"

"Alright, alright," Freeze Blade groaned, knowing that he couldn't defy Colin. The feline mabu had been working for the Skylanders as a pilot since he was seven years old. He was the youngest pilot ever to win the International Cloud-Race 9000, the first to ever fly into the Sea of Clouds and come back out, and the anonymous writer of hundreds of piloting books. All before his tenth birthday. Colin was too valuable to the Skylanders forces for him to be defied, and in terms of over all contribution, he was equal to any of the portal masters. The only problem was his attitude, which was worse than a grumpy, overworked troll on a Monday morning waking up at six o' clock and only having five minutes to prepare.

Walking over to the ruined deck, Freeze Blade looked over the destruction of the ship. The deck looked pretty much intact, except for the very front end of the blue deck, which had been cleaved in half by the strange explosion. The front of the ship, including the cockpit and artillery cannon, had crashed about two yards away on the other end of the field they had crashed into, and was being pushed back to the hull by Bouncer and Rubble Rouser. Already on the deck were Food Fight, Star Strike, and Roller Brawl, the latter of which Freeze Blade was extremely relieved to see okay. Freeze Blade frowned however when he realized who was missing.

"Where's Infernia, Quartzia, and Flash?" Freeze Blade asked, concerned.

"They must have been below decks when we were hit," Colin replied with a shrug. At this, Freeze Blade began to panic.

"You don't think they're dead, do you?" Freeze Blade asked, worried. However, Colin shook his head.

"The explosion was too small for anyone to have been killed," the mabu answered. "Most likely, whoever hit us used a very small explosive, meant to spread fire through out the entire ship. However, it seems that the person who launched it sucked at aiming, cause fire only spread through half of below decks. It did however blow a hole in the cargo bay, along with half the hallway. Anything or anyone near it was tossed out of the ship..."

OOOOOOOO

Purple. That was what Spark saw. A strange aura of purple energy in front of him. Turning around, Spark saw that the purple aura was all around him, surrounding him in a sphere of energy that was only broken by a strange pair double-doors at the other end of the sphere. Also behind him were several shadowy creatures forming a circle. To Spark's right was the shape of a female elf wearing a long robe. To his left was a full-grown dragon with two tails that seemed to be standing at the head of the circle. In the center of the circle was a strange winged ball of light.

"How much longer until he opens the gate," said the elf to Spark's right.

"Not much longer," a voice coming from the ball of light said. "Be patient Enchantix."

"We've waited long enough," said the two-tailed dragon in a deep, vibrating voice. "Soon, the first lord will be awakened. If Lord Mon isn't defeated, then it will be impossible for any of the others to be defeated. If he can't open the gate, then we must do it ourselves!"

"I understand your concerns, but you have nothing to fear," said the ball of light. "He will open the gate. Give him a little time, and I promise he will. When he does, I will explain the situation to him, and the other gates will be opened. And if I happen to have some meatloaf along the way, that will be a bonus."

"What is it with you and meatloaf, Forel?" asked an elf standing across from Spark on the other side of the circle. "You never seem to take your job seriously."

Spark didn't know why, but he thought that the ball of light, who's name seemed to be Forel, was smiling. "If I took things seriously, I wouldn't be an angel, now would I?" Forel replied.

Spark's head suddenly felt like it was spinning when he heard these words. _Angel? _Spark thought. _Angels...angels are supposed to be a myth! Aren't they? _For a few minutes, Spark couldn't hear what the group in front of him was saying. It wasn't until his headache had subsided that he could hear, again.

"...one more day," said the dragon. "If he doesn't open the gate by then, we will open it ourselves. Understood?"

"Understood," Forel said after a few minutes of hesitation. Suddenly, Spark's vision began to fade, and he began to hear a faint voice call his name, which seemed to be getting louder and louder with every second. Before his vision completely faded though, he heard one word spoken, one word that sent shivers down Spark's spine, down to his very core;"...demons..."

OOOOOOOO

"Spark! SPARK!" the anthropomorphic fish standing above Sparx shouted as he woke up with a jolt, screaming and flaring his wings out in surprise. One of his wings hit a giant seahorse nearby in the face, causing him to whiny in protest.

"Sorry, Strike," Spark said, recovering from the shock of waking up from his dream. Speaking of shock...

"WHAT THE HELL, SPARK?!" Triton yelled.

"Woah, calm down Triton," Spark said, backing away from the gillman. "It was an accident."

"Uh...right," Triton said, calming down.

"Are you all right?" Spark asked.

"We're fine," said Triton after a moment of hesitation.

Looking around, Spark noticed their surroundings. They were in a field filled with snow and pine trees, and surrounded on all sides except to the front and back by snow peaked mountains. The air was filled with white snowflakes swirling around in a flurry of white. To Spark's surprise, it seemed to be light out.

"I read that the Frostfest Mountains were a place of eternal night, so why is it light out here?" Spark asked.

"We're not in the Frostfest Mountains," Triton replied. "We're in the outskirts of the Frostfest Mountains, near Winter Keep."

"That's where the statue of Angela's aunt is," Spark said, frowning as he realized something. "Wait, speaking of Angela, where is she?"

"I would say that she is where the explosions are," said a voice behind Spark.

Turning around, Spark saw Lefa standing behind him. Jumping back in surprise, he glared at her.

"Stop doing that," Spark angrily said.

"Doing what?" Lefa asked, feigning innocence.

"Nevermind," Spark decided. "What were you saying about explosions?"

Instead of answering, Lefa pointed in the direction behind Spark. Turning around, Spark saw small bursts of fiery light, faded due to the snow.

"I really hope that's not Angela," Spark said.

"Why?" Shock asked.

"Because she would only use explosions like that against Quartzia."

"Oh," Lefa and Triton said simultaneously.

"Yeah."

OOOOOOOO

In a clearing on the other end of the field that Spark, Triton, and Lefa were at, Infernia was just getting up from landing on the snow laden ground. Looking around, she saw nothing but dense trees on one side, and empty whiteness on the other. She started floating towards the empty plain, when suddenly a voice called out.

"I would not go that way-direction if I were you," the voice said. Turning around, Infernia still saw nothing but pine trees. "Sky-up here."

Looking up, she saw a massive white bird flapping it's wings as it descended slowly to the ground. On it's back, a green-skinned elf rode the huge bird like a horse. The elf wore a light-blue scarf, a white shirt beneath a long silver-colored coat with blue buttons, and a pair of blue slacks. His dark-blue hair was tied into a short ponytail with a feather stuck into it, and his eyes appeared to be filled with magical wind. Jumping back in surprise, Infernia gawked at the strange elf riding the even stranger white bird. That is, until the bird landed and raised a cloud of snow that covered Infernia, shocking her out of her reverie.

"Hello-hi," the elf said.

"What the?" Infernia said in surprise.

"Oh, sorry-pardons," said the elf, waving his hand. Somehow, all the snow on Infernia suddenly fell off. Gawking again at the elf, Infernia took a step back just in case.

"How did you do that?" Infernia asked.

"The same way-how I know that there is a deep-steep cliff in the direction-way that you were float-walking," the elf said, getting off the large bird, which began to shrink to the size of a regular. "By reading the air-wind currents. Now then, since you are obviously lost-unfound, I will assist-help guide-lead you back to your friend-companions. Assuming of course, that your friend-companions are a black dragon with golden horns, chest-plates, wings, spikes, and a tail- spike, a fish-man in a purple jumpsuit with a strangely-shaped crossbow riding a seahorse, and a tree nymph wearing a sash-cloth with several throw-knifes strap-attached to it."

"Well, they're not really my friends, but I do know them," Infernia said, realizing the elf had described Sparx, Triton, and Lefa.

"Excellent-good," said the elf. "Then let us get go-walking before they get to the metal-wing dragoness-hybrid and the crystal-earth dragoness battle-fighting each other."

"WHAT?!" Infernia yelled. "We gotta get there before they come in the way of Quartzia and Angela!"

Infernia began floating fastly toward the trees before she stopped halfway and turned back around with an embarrassed look on her face.

"I'm sorry," said Infernia. "My name's Infernia. What's yours?"

Smiling, the elf walked over, the now normal-sized white bird on his shoulder. "It is nice to meet you Infernia. My name is Aquillo."

OOOOOOOO

Five figures stood in a dark cavern lit faintly by torches. In front of them was a pit, so deep and dark, you could almost believe it was bottomless. Standing in front of it, the five figures began to chant. It was in a strange language that sounded like it was invented by monsters. Which was not far from the truth actually. As the five people chanted, a shadow of a figure could be seen climbing from the pit. It seemed to have a rather large right hand that seemed to gleam in the light of the fire. Finally, after a few more tense minutes, the creature stood before the figures. Seeing this, the lead figure bowed.

"Welcome, Lord Mon," the lead figure said in a voice that indicated him to be male.

"It's good to be back," the creature, apparently Lord Mon, said. "Tell me, who are you to awaken me?"

"We are the Four Horsemen," said the figure to the right of the leader in a gravelly voice. "And this is our summoner, Paleo."

"Is that so?" Lord Mon replied. "Well, since you awoke me, you may wish anything you want that is in my power to do."

"Lord Mon," the lead figure Paleo said. "I only wish for you and the other Lords to be awoken. But there are those who would not want that, which is why I awoke you first. I wish for you to destroy those who would defy your glory."

"Granted," Lord Mon said. "Is there anyone specific you have in mind?"

"As a matter of fact, there is," Paleo said. "I wish for you for you to destroy the one person who could _really _get in the way."

"Who?" asked Lord Mon, to which Paleo seemed to grin.

"Spark the dragon."

A/N

A/N

**Now what could they want with Spark? How is he the only one who could defeat them?**

"Why are you asking that when you already know the answer?"

**Why are you asking that when _you _already know the answer?**

"...Touche."

**Exactly. Wow, this chapter took me quite a while, but luckily I finally got it out. Anyway, make sure to watch out for my next chater**

Evil Arrival

**Oh, and if you're wondering why I didn't tell anybody this chapter's name last chapter, it's because I didn't know what I was going to call this chapter at the time.**** So yeah. Again, make sure to watch out for my next chapter, leave a review if you like puppies and stay Magical!**

**EDIT: I forgot to put Flash's name in when Freeze Blade was asking about where the people missing were. Sorry about that. **


	6. Evil Arrival

**Evil Arrival**

"TAKE THIS!" Quartzia angrily yelled at Angela, as she slammed her forelegs down on the ground, causing a large rock pillar with crystals sticking out of it to erupt from the icy ground in front of her. Swinging around gracefully, Quartzia struck the pillar with her mace shaped tail, launching the rock at the other dragoness. Before the rock could hit however, two small missiles shot out of slots on either side of the metal harness Angela wore. The projectiles hit the stone structure, sending crystals and rocks flying all over the field and raising a cloud of smoke where the pillar used to be. Suddenly, Angela flew out of the smoke created by the attack and tackled Quartzia, pinning her down onto the snow and rubble strewn ground.

"Stop it, Julie!" Angela yelled into Quartzia's face, trying to stop Quartzia from fighting before they caused an avalanche. "I didn't come here to interfere with your mission! I came here to help get Nina back!"

"DON'T CALL ME JULIE!" Quartzia angrily shouted at the mention of her former name.

Ever since the age of ten, Julie, the friendly and kind dragoness who had been friends with Angela, had started calling herself by the name Quartzia. Along with this name change however, came a complete personality change. Overnight, Julie had changed into Quartzia, the mean, bossy, self-centered, and not too bright popular girl who treated all her friends, except Fiera, like dirt. From that point onward, "Quartzia" would always get into fights with Angela, who continued to call her Julie despite the many other examples Quartzia had made of those who tried to do the same.

Sliding her tail between her and Angela, Quartzia launched Angela back across the field toward a group of pine trees that were opposite a narrow entrance out of the valley. Before she could hit the ground, a large, metal right arm suddenly shot out of the trees and grabbed Angela by the tail, leaving her swinging inches from the ground. The arm was built out of plates that were made of some strange metal that seemed to glow faintly with a sort of black light. It was covered all over with symbols, the most prominent being a large swirling symbol that looked like a backwards nine; the symbol for the Air element, located on the back of the razor-clawed hand.

Moments later, the strange, artificial arm was followed by an equally strange owner. The first thing that could be seen was a mask made of the same metal as the arm. It had a long, curved beak and only showed two gleaming red eyes with black slits for pupils. The rest of the body was covered by a black cloak with an upright hood that covered the rest of the head. The coat parted at the person's (who appeared to be male) knees, revealing long, black-scaled legs with bird-like talons. The robe was ripped up on the right side, where the metal arm was, but was fully intact on the other side, going down to the elbow of a clawed arm covered all over with gray feathers.

The two dragonesses stared in shock at the mysterious figure that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, until Angela finally broke the silence.

"Who the hell are you?" Angela asked the mysterious stranger in a rude tone.

"That is not important," said the stranger in a grave, echoing voice as the strange arm moved Angela so that her face was just inches from the mask. "The important thing is what you know of the location of a dragon by the name of Spark."

"And why would I tell you that?" Angela said snootily. For a few seconds, the stranger's red eyes scanned Angela's face, until he suddenly threw Angela into the nearby wall of the valley. Quartzia who was still watching nearby, involuntarily flinched at the sound of something breaking as Angela hit the rock wall, raising a large cloud of dust. Turning back to where the stranger was, Quartzia was surprised to find that he was gone without even leaving any footprints.

"Perhaps you can tell me," a voice behind the shocked Quartzia said. Turning around, Quartzia was even more shocked to find that the stranger had somehow gotten behind her without her noticing.

"Your one-horned dragon friend over there did not know," the strange creature continued as he began to kneel down to Quartzia's level, ignoring the dragoness' shocked expression. "Tell me, if you can, where a dragon by the name of Spark is."

At the end of this sentence, a fireball suddenly hit the stranger in the back of his head, lighting his hood on fire. "If you're looking for me, I'm right here!" a voice Quartzia recognized as belonging to Spark called out. A second later, Sparx ran into the valley through the entrance behind the stranger, quickly followed by Lefa and Triton, who was riding on Strike as always. Angela, who was beginning to pick herself out of the rubble created from her impact against the valley wall, face-palmed herself.

"Why does he always charges into these crazy situations like an idiot?" Angela asked herself, annoyed at Spark's stupidity.

The strange masked creature calmly stood up and, reaching behind his head with his large right arm, tore of the hood of his cloak. Looking up him, Quartzia was surprised to find that the stranger's head, which had a pair of long, elf-like ears and was covered all over with black scales and gray, hair-like feathers, had a row of small, curved horns running down the middle of his head from the rim of his mask to the base of his neck.

"Fire breath," the stranger said, as he threw the remains of his hood down on the ground. "An ability expected of a regular fire dragon, but I expected something different from somebody who can supposedly interfere with the Lords awakenings."

"I don't know anything about that," Spark said with a confused look. "All I'm trying to do is find my sister, Nina."

"I know," the stranger said. "He told me."

"'He'?" asked Spark, interested. "Who's He?"

"No one you will meet when I'm done with you," said the stranger, as a black pistol suddenly appeared in his left hand. "But please, allow me to introduce myself. I am Spee D. Mon of the Ten Demon Lords."

OOOOOOOO

"That's it, that's it!" Colin yelled out to Bouncer and Rubble Rouser, who had finally gotten the torn-off front of the Dread-Yacht back into place. "Great job fellas!"

As soon as the two ends of the ship were back into place, Rubble Rouser came over to Colin, who was standing in the snow on the ship's starboard (right) side. "So how are we gonna repair the ship so that we can get all the way back to the Citadel?"

"Obviously, we're not," Colin said, annoyed at Rubble Rouser for not figuring that out yet. "But if Bouncer uses his eye-lasers to weld together the metal on the outside and if Freeze Blade freezes the outside of the pipes that were ripped up, we'll be able to just make it to Woodburrow. Then I can call up Sharpfin to repair the Dread-Yacht properly. Then we can come back later to continue searching for that missing dragoness."

"Alright," Rubble Rouser said, beginning climb up the side of the ship...before a large, blade-like hook attached to a long chain came out of the forest surrounding the clearing where the Dread-Yacht was. Yelling out in surprise, Rubble Rouser was quickly pulled into the forest, which he was ejected back out of mere moments after a small explosion was heard. As soon the Skylanders up on the deck saw the blackened and smoking form of the rock monster landing in the snow, they all jumped down to the ground, assuming their respective battle stances along with Bouncer.

Out of the trees where the hook had come from emerged a tall, humanoid figure with a black cloak that covered the person's whole body. On the figure's right arm was the blade-like hook that the others had seen earlier, but even as the others watched, the hook seemed to disappear into the sleeve of the cloak. As the figure walked into the clearing, the Skylanders and Colin could see a pair of long, crystal horns that had speared themselves through the top of the hood.

Seeing his fellow Cloudbreaker lying on the ground in a smoking heap, Freeze Blade was filled with rage at this strange enemy who dared to attack the Skylanders. An ice chakram forming in his hand, Freeze Blade rushed forward at the cloaked figure. Raising his arm up as he skated across the snow, he brought his weapon down on the stranger's head, but before he could make contact with the hood, the cloaked stranger brought their right hand, which strangely didn't have the hook anymore, up so quickly that Freeze Blade couldn't even see it and caught the ice cat's wrist.

"Pathetic," a voice, male by the sounds of it, said from beneath the stranger's hood. "I thought the rest of the Skylanders would be a greater challenge. But apparently, the Cloudbreakers aren't any better than the Trap Team. Wouldn't you agree, Ephialtes?"

At that moment, a small, gargoyle-like creature with black scales, horns, and claws and beady red eyes came out of the trees behind the cloaked stranger. "Oh yes, master Cazador," the creature, apparently Ephialtes, said. "These 'protectors of Skylands' don't hold a candle to your greatness master Cazador."

"Quit sucking up, Ephialtes," Cazador said, kicking the small creature in the head.

"Yes master Cazador," Ephialtes replied, rubbing his small black head.

"Hey, idiot!" Freeze Blade yelled, bringing his other hand up, an ice chakram forming in it as he spoke. "You might want to pay attention!" Then he brought down the weapon on Cazador's head, creating a tear in his hood and causing him to release his grip on Freeze Blade.

"Hmm," Cazador said. "Maybe you will give me some fun."

"Oh, we'll give you some fun," a voice behind Cazador said. "In the form of us beating you into a pile of mashed potatoes."

"Guessing from that horrible joke and the vegetable reference, you must be Food Fight," Cazador stated, turning around to see the little plant creature holding his veggie cannon at him. "And I'm also guessing that if you are behind me, then Bouncer must be to your right, Star Strike to your left, and Roller Brawl is directly above me."

Food Fight narrowed his eyes at the crystal-horned foe in front of him. "How do you know all of our names?" Food Fight suspiciously asked Cazador, recalling the many times when an enemy could never remember any of the Skylanders names and simply referred to any of them as 'Skylander'.

"How I know is not of importance," Cazador replied to the veggie warrior's question.

"Well, even if you won't tell us," Star Strike said, preparing to fire a star shard. "We can easily get the information out of you once you're sent to Cloudcracker Prison."

For some reason, Cazador found that statement funny, as laughter could be heard from beneath his hood.

"What's so funny?" Bouncer wondered as he got ready to fire several shoulder rockets.

"You'll find out soon enough," Cazador said mysteriously. "So what are my options here from your perspective?"

"Surrender, be forcefully captured, or die," Freeze Blade said, the beginnings of an ice shard forming in front of him.

"I see," Cazador stated as he moved his hand up to his hood and grabbed the rim, a movement Food Fight couldn't help but wonder what the point of was. "I'm afraid none of those are going to work for me."

"Forcefully captured it is then," Food Fight said as all four Skylanders simultaneously fired their respective attacks at the cloaked figure before them, raising a cloud of dust and snow in the process. At the sight of this, a smile began to grow on his face. This facial expression turned to one of surprise as the dust began to clear, and then to complete and utter shock when he saw that all that was where Cazador had stood just a moment before was the tattered remains of his cloak. Cazador was gone, and Food Fight couldn't think of where he was...until he heard Bouncer cry out in surprise.

Looking over, everybody saw several long vines with small, green orbs attached to them were wrapping themselves around Bouncer's body, arms, and single wheel. Suddenly, before any of them could react, the orbs on the vines exploded, releasing a cloud of poisonous-looking gas and causing Bouncer to fall over on the ground. While Bouncer looked mostly intact, the explosion must have reached some of the wiring inside the former Roboto Ball player's body because he wasn't getting up.

A moment later, a figure jumped out of the ground next to the fallen robot, which the Skylanders realized was Cazador from the crystal horns atop his head, which they noticed had several orange patches on them, which were quickly fading away to replaced by the horns original black color. Without the cloak, everybody could see that Cazador was actually quite skinny and had a rather lean build, despite his ability to hold Freeze Blade's entire arm with just one hand. His small frame was covered by a simple black vest and slacks. His body was deathly pale, except for the claws on his hands and talon-like feet, which were made of the same black crystal as his horns. Besides his horns, Cazador's head also held a mop of greasy, black hair which fell down almost to his shoulders and a pair of long, elf-like ears. The strangest thing about him however were his eyes, which kept changing from one eye color to another. The Skylanders also noticed the same kind of vines that had attacked Bouncer were growing on Cazador's back, but even as they watched, the vines withered away and turned to dust, the ashes falling down on the ground and blackening the snow.

"You've made three major mistakes so far," Cazador said, holding up a finger as he mentioned each mistake. "Mistake number one; you didn't stop to think that I might have had the ability to dig underground, which is why I went after Rubble Rouser first. Mistake number two; you underestimated me, believing that I was just another arrogant, vain enemy that you face against on a daily basis, not even thinking for a moment that I could have been perfectly capable of taking on all of you. And mistake number three; none of you asked yourself where you had seen the crystal that my horns were made of before."

Food Fight stood with a confused look, until he realized that Cazador was right; he _had_ seen crystal like that before, but he couldn't remember where. Not only that, but the vines and hook that Cazador had somehow utilized also struck a cord in Food Fight's memory. Something about an island of talking stone heads and then later a really rainy group of islands, and earlier, Cazador had mentioned something about...then it hit him. Food Fight remembered seeing those same vines used by a different enemy, and the same thing was true with the hook Cazador had used. As for the horns, Food Fight knew what very well what that crystal was. _As hard as it is to believe, _Food Fight thought to himself. _Those horns...are made of Traptanium._

OOOOOOOO

Everybody stood in awkward silence as they stared at Spee D. Mon, until Angela broke the silence.

"Well that's the stupidest name I've ever heard in my life," she said.

Without looking over at her, Spee pointed his pistol above Angela's head and fired, sending a small black projectile that seemed to be made of condensed wind at the cliff above Angela's head. This caused a large portion of snow to drop on Angela's head, once again burying her.

"As I was saying," Spee D. Mon continued, pointing his gun back at Spark. "I will give you a quick, mostly painless death. Is that understood?"

"There's no way in hell that's going to work for me," Spark said, getting ready to launch another fireball at his opponent. "So I've got a different proposal for you. You tell us where my sister is, go back to where you came from, and we won't totally destroy you. It's five against one. You've got no chance."

The metal armed Demon Lord sighed. "If I had a gold coin for every time I heard someone say that, I'd be able to buy the entire Cloudbreak Islands. Alright, let's just get this over with. I'm bored with this already." Before anyone could react, Spee D. Mon's metal arm headed straight to Spark in a silver blur, extending to impossible lengths. Just before it could hit Spark however, an elf that Spark didn't recognize jumped in front of him out of nowhere and grabbed the metal hand, creating a small gouge in the snow with his feet before stopping completely.

Staring in apparent shock at the strange elf that had appeared, Spee D. Mon glared at him before firing two dark air bullets at the elf. Reacting quickly, the elf moved the metal arm he was holding in front of the projectiles, holes appearing in the metal surface as they were stopped. Yelling in pain despite the hand being seemingly artificial, the Demon Lord pulled his metal arm back to it's original position as he uttered a string of curse words.

"Who the fuck are you?" Spee D. Mon snarled, rubbing his hand where the bullets had hit him.

"Speak-language, please," the elf said, pulling the feather out of his ponytail as he stepped forward. "As for my name-title, I am Aquillo. And you are trespassing on my home-place."

"You son of a bitch," Spee hissed through his mask. "Step aside. I have a mission to accomplish."

"If you hope-wish to murder-kill this dragon," Aquillo stated in a grim voice, spinning the feather in his hand, which began to grow longer and change shape, until it became a long, light-blue spear with a feather shaped blade on either side of the shaft. "You will have to get past-through me."

"Man, this day is full of surprises," Infernia said to herself behind Triton, Shock, Lefa, and Quartzia, having just floated out of the woods after Aquillo.

"Very well," Spee D. Mon growled in a low, menacing tone as he got ready to pounce. "I will destroy you first."

OOOOOOOO

A cloaked figure stood before a light-blue, silver, gray, and black vortex in the middle of a dark temple-like room lined on either side by black columns. Torches held up by several stands placed between the columns provided light to the dim room, showing four figures at one end of the room standing in front an enormous door that seemed to lead outside judging from the white light coming through the cracks. At the opposite of the room, ten cages, three of which were occupied, hung over a dark pit that seemed to go on forever.

The figure in the middle of the room stood perfectly still in front of the vortex, as though they were waiting for something. They didn't have to wait long however, as a the vortex suddenly shifted as a large claw stretched through the portal, grasping at the air. This was followed by an arm, then an elbow, shoulder, and many other body parts until a huge beast stood before the cloaked figure. The creature had a very draconic appearance, with a brown scaled body, a pair of yellowed horns jutting out of it's forehead, draconic legs, bat-like wings, and large clawed hands. However, it walked on two legs, lacked a tail and chest-plates that dragons usually have, and possessed thumbs and fangs that were more vampire-like than a dragon's. Despite being far taller than the cloaked figure before it, the beast bowed before them, getting down on one knee and putting it's fist on the ground. Forty-nine more nearly identical beasts followed their companion out of the portal, and, like the beast before them, bowed before the figure before the portal shrank and disappeared.

"Welcome my allies," the cloaked figure greeted the creatures in front of him. "My name is Paleo, and I am your master, therefore you must follow my instructions. You must also follow the orders of the four you see behind me. Now rise for your orders."

"Yes master Paleo," all of the creatures said simultaneously as they got up. "What are your orders, master Paleo?"

"You, you, you, and you," Paleo said as he pointed at four different beasts, who lined up in front of their master. "You four will be my personal guard. Unless I give permission, you are not to allow anyone within four feet of me. Is that clear?"

"Yes master Paleo," the four beasts replied.

"Good," Paleo said, his cloak sweeping across the floor as he turned to the other forty-six creatures. "The rest of you will guard the temple. If you see anyone, you are to report it to me. Understood?"

"Yes master Paleo," the rest of the creatures replied.

"Also, if one of my four companions order you to assist them, then you are to follow their orders," Paleo added

"Yes master Paleo," the beasts replied almost instantly.

"Dismissed," Paleo said, confident that the creatures would do their jobs competently if not completely correctly. As he walked over to the door at the end of the room, the four creatures he had ordered to be his personal guards followed him. Stopping in front of the doors, Paleo looked over at the other four figures. Each of them wore a black cloak and a mask, the one at the far left wearing a lion mask, the one to the left wearing a mask shaped like the front of a Spartan helmet, the one on the right wearing a mask shaped like a vulture, and the one on the far right wearing a skull mask.

Turning to the figure with the lion mask, Paleo said, "Conquest, I want you to take six of the gallu and build a teleport pad to the Southern Water Dragon Kingdom. My spies have confirmed that the location of the Demon Lord of the Undead element is located there."

The lion-masked figure nodded. "How will I wake him though?"

At this, Paleo seemed to grin under the hood of his cloak. "Set up the teleport pad so that eight people will be able to enter it. I will send Cazador with you and the six galla so that you he can use his powers to awaken the Demon Lord."

"You put far too much trust in that artificial demon if you ask me," the figure with the skull mask said. "He's not even one of the Ten Demon Lords, yet ever since you sent him to Cloudcracker Prison, his power is equal to that of-"

His sentence was cut short when Paleo grabbed his throat and rammed the skull masked figure against the door. "If you ever mention that place again," Paleo growled, his voice quivering with anger, pain, and remorse. "I will send you back to the void I found you and the rest of the Horsemen in, Death. Is that clear?"

Death hurriedly nodded, and Paleo let him go, getting in his face. "I put faith in those who do their job. Your job is not to patronize my choice of allies. Cazador did his job better than I had ever expected him to, and that is why I believe he can accomplish other, more difficult tasks. If he can not accomplish a task, he will be punished severely with the required amount of pain he deserves, but until then, I will put my faith in him. And if he and everyone else does their tasks correctly, then I will have my revenge on the Skylanders, and soon, all of Skylands will be mine!"

* * *

**Three-cheers for my longest chapter ever! And a three-cheers for my return! Sorry for keeping you all waiting. I had a lot of stuff going on, but consider this extra long chapter as an apology. I promise that in the future, I'll keep these things as consistent as I possibly can, but for now, I'm glad I've got this out of the was. But enough about that. Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy Late Birthday to Undead Prowess and Samjax! Keep being awesome, and I can't wait for the second part of Darkest Hour, Prowess. Anybody who's reading this, make sure to read some of Undead Prowess and Samjax's stories if you haven't already. They are some awesome authors, no lie.**

"If you're done acting like a commercial speaker, we're almost out of time, so you might want to wrap this up."

**Alright, Foaly. Remember to look out for my next chapter:**

Elves vs. Demons

**And remember that reviews are like food to me. The more I get, the more energy I have to write the next chapter. **;)  
**I'll see you faithful readers next time, and until then, Stay Magical and Merry Christmas!**

**EDIT: I accidentally said that Conquest's mask was that of an eagle at one point. It's actually a lion's mask, so I'm sorry if I got anyone confused.**


	7. Elves vs Demons

**Elves vs. Demons**

As the Skylanders stared at Cazador in bewilderment, fully understanding their situation, they began to ready their weapons in what they knew would be a futile attempt to defend themselves. They realized that they were beat, and that the enemy in front of them had lead them into a trap. They knew that Cazador was too powerful for any of them, that he was smart and willing to use his power, and that without Bouncer and Rubble Rouser, they didn't stand a ghost of a chance. His cloak alone had been able to withstand four of their attacks, and it seemed to still be usable. If that was testimony to the owner, then the Skylanders would need a miracle. A miracle that came in the form of a missile coming from the Dread-Yacht that hit Cazador, exploding in a burst of fire and launching the surprised adversary a few feet away.

Turning toward the wrecked airship, Cazador, Ephialtes, and the Skylanders saw Colin, standing in his usual aviator's jacket, holding a missile launcher, which was pointed at Cazador, another missile already magically forming in the piece of artillery. Cazador stared in complete shock at the mabu pilot, having never been attacked in such a manner before.

"That's impossible," Cazador muttered aloud to himself, scowling at Colin. "I was told that there were only nine Skylanders, three of which weren't even official Skylanders and aren't here, and three, maybe four, stowaways. My information is never wrong, so who are you?"

"Your information is correct," Colin replied, aiming his missile launcher at Cazador again. "I'm not a Skylander. I'm the pilot of the ship that you just shot down, you son of a bitch. And right now, I'm really, _really_ pissed off!"

With this said, Colin fired another missile at Cazador. Raising his arms, Cazador grabbed the explosive projectile on either side, stopping it just a few inches in front of his face. Lowering his hands, Cazador turned the missile around in his hands until it was pointed at Colin, then released it from his grasp. The missile rocketed straight back at the mabu pilot, but before it could hit, a hand materialized in the air right next to Colin, which grabbed his left arm and dissipated into shadows, taking the mabu along with it. With nothing to hit, the missile exploded against the side of a tree on the other side of the clearing, raising a cloud of snow, pine needles, chips of wood, and dust into the air.

Blinking in surprise, Cazador scanned the area for any signs of his attacker, and stopped to look at a single spot of darkness forming in the air in front of the split in the Dread-Yacht. This spot grew until it formed the shapes of two people, one clearly Colin and the other that of a person that Cazador didn't and couldn't recognize, before dissipating into the air, revealing Colin and an undead elf with pure black eyes wearing a black cloak over a pair of plain black pants and a shirt. Turning to the elf next to him, a mischievous grin formed on Colin's face.

"As always, you have a knack for showing up at just the right time, Hades," Colin said as the elf, which he seemed to know, let go of his arm.

"And you Colin, as always, have a knack for getting into unneeded trouble," Hades replied, a very serious expression on his face. "You really should stop trying to piss people off."

"Whatever," Colin huffed, crossing his arms. "What are you doing here anyway? Are you here to deal with this guy or not?"

"Yes," Hades said, moving forward toward Cazador. "Clearly, he is a threat, even if he is not my original target. I suggest you and the Skylanders head back into your ship and try to repair it while I engage in combat."

"Sure, I've already gotten bored with this guy anyway," Colin replied, walking into the ship through the hole.

"Hey!" Food Fight yelled, annoyed at the undead elf's suggestion. "What do you mean we should all hide in the Dread-Yacht? Do you honestly believe that you can take on this guy by yourself?"

Turning toward Food Fight, Hades looked into the veggie warrior's eyes. Looking into those seemingly empty voids, Food Fight felt a strange yet weirdly familiar dread, causing shivers to run up his nonexistent spine. "Yes," Hades replied, after a moment. Suddenly, a huge, black, double-bladed sword, bigger than any sword Food Fight or any of the other Skylanders had ever seen, appeared in Hades' hand. It was a complete mystery to almost everyone there how the elf could even hold up a sword like that, much less wield it with the ease he handled it with.

Turning back to the enemy in front of him, Hades pointed his blade straight at Cazador. "My name is Hades," he said. "A Tenth Class Skill Reaper, and the lieutenant of Triumvir Tod. Prepare to die."

"Enough with the drama," Cazador said as he rolled his eyes, which turned red as a large steel pole with a scythe-like blade made of energy on one end appeared in his hands. "I'll fight with you because you seem like you'll be a bit more of a challenge, but don't think I'll just let those weaklings go. Ephialtes will deal with them in my place."

"I get to bring pain?!" the little gargoyle-like creature, which almost everyone had forgotten about, questioned excitedly.

"Go crazy," Cazador replied, waving his free hand at the small demon.

"Yay!" Ephialtes cheered, turning towards the remaining Skylanders. As the Skylanders turned to look at the small creature, Ephialtes began to grow in size, his claws becoming longer, the small, stubby horns on his head sharpening, and his talon-like feet growing bigger. When Ephialtes had grown to be the same size as Freeze Blade, huge, bat-like wings erupted from his back. From there, Ephialtes kept growing in size until he was as big as the Dread-Yacht. Rearing his head back, Ephialtes let out a monstrous roar that echoed through the mountains causing an avalanche that could be heard in the distance.

"Oh shit," Roller Brawl, who had dropped down on the ground, muttered.

"So what's the plan here?" Food Fight questioned out loud, staring in fear at the huge beast that Ephialtes had become. When nobody answered, Food Fight looked around to find that the other Skylanders were already running towards the other end of the valley. "I thought so." With this said, Food Fight began to follow suit, going surprisingly fast despite his stubby legs.

Jumping over the collapsed form of Bouncer, Ephialtes began to give chase to the Skylanders. Watching as the energetic Ephialtes pursued the heroes, Cazador let out a small chuckle. Turning back towards Hades, Cazador's countenance instantly grew serious as he lowered himself into a fighting stance.

"Shall we?" Cazador questioned the elf reaper.

Hades nodded in response, reading his weapon.

For a few seconds, the two enemies stood in utter silence, sizing each other up. After a few moments, the two suddenly charged each other, striking at each other with their weapons, which met each other in a spark of undead energy...

OOOOOOOO

In a clearing nearby, Aquillo was pressing the tip of his spear between the claws of Spee D. Mon's metal arm. Suddenly, Aquillo flipped over backwards, pulling Spee D. Mon over his head. Throwing Spee D. Mon down on the ground, Aquillo pulled his spear out of the demon lord's claw and landed on his feet him. Bringing his spear over his head, Aquillo thrust the weapon at Spee, who immediately rolled out of the way. Springing to his feet, the demon lord brought his gun up to the elf's head and fired. However, Aquillo ducked, dodging the wind bullet, and attempted to stab at Spee D. Mon's abdomen, but missed as the masked demon seemed to disappear.

_Where did he go?_ Spark thought to himself as he scanned the clearing for signs of the demon lord. While the two were fighting, Spark had made his way over to where Angela was along with Triton, Strike, and Lefa, and was currently helping to dig the phoenix-unicorn-dragon hybrid out of the snow. Infernia and Quartzia were still standing at the other end of the clearing, too focused on the fight between the elf and the demon to notice them. Suddenly, Spark felt a gust behind him, and turned to see Spee D. Mon pointing his gun at the dragon. Before he could pull the trigger, a strand of light-blue energy flew over Spark's head and attached itself to the demon's chest. Spee D. Mon flew over Spark's head back towards Aquillo, who had embedded one of the blades of his spear in the ground in front of him, where the cord of elemental energy was attaching itself to the demon.

"Focus-concentrate on this fight-battle," Aquillo said to Spee D. Mon as he separated the rest of his spear from the tip embedded in the ground and pointed it at Spee D. Mon. "Then you can try-attempt to murder-kill that dragon."

"Very well," Spee D. Mon replied, getting up from the ground. "Tell me first though. Why do you defend this dragon? You have never met these people before today, and if you are hoping for a reward, then it seems to me that you could obtain it through much easier ways than this. You know this, and yet you defend these people anyway. Why?"

"You could not understand-realize," Spee D. Mon said. "My objective-goal is to help-assist others. I do not care-think about prize-reward. I only want-wish to help-assist people who require-need it. That is my reason-why."

Spee D. Mon was silent for a few moments, and when he did speak, his voice was in a whisper that Aquillo could barely hear. "I...understand the need...to protect people..."

Aquillo blinked in surprise at the demon lord's statement, but before he could question Spee D. Mon further, he heard a monstrous roar in the distance, followed by a loud rumbling coming from behind Infernia and Quartzia. As everybody turned toward the sound they saw a huge wave of snow coming straight towards the clearing, and before anyone could react, the avalanche swept over the group, enveloping the clearing in a uniform whiteness...

OOOOOOOO

In the highest room of a purple-colored stone tower on an island that floated far above the nearby islands, a young man was sitting at a desk, writing in a large book. The young man seemed to be about fifteen or sixteen years old, with blonde hair that was covered with multiple violet symbols and two different eyes, the right one being a blue human eye and the left one being a snake-like yellow eye, over a pair of spectacles. He wore purple shirt with a golden eight- pointed star over the teen's heart and a pair of black jeans. On the back of the chair he was sitting on was a violet trench coat with golden buttons in the same shape as the symbol on his shirt. As the young man continued to write in the book, the door on the other side of the tower opened, revealing a small mabu wearing a purple jacket and a brown book-bag.

"Magicanus, sir?" the mabu spoke tentatively.

"How bad is it, Reginald?" Magicanus asked, noticing the slight hint of fear in his assistants voice that told him he was probably about to hear something he wouldn't like.

"Weeeellll..." Reginald replied, drawing out the word in order to avoid answering as long as he could. "It seems that Spark has been discovered missing, along with Angela, Triton Strike, and Lefa."

"On the same day that the search party for Nina was sent out, right?" Magicanus guessed casually, not really seeming to bay attention to the mabu, who blinked in surprise.

"Y-yes," the mabu stuttered. "How did you figure that out?"

"Because I know where they are."

"You do?"

"Indeed," Magicanus replied. "And I assure you, everything is going exactly how it should be. You need not worry yourself, Reginald. Now, is there anything else?"

"Yes," Reginald said, suddenly growing paler. "You have a visitor. Triumvir Tod is downstairs."

At this, Magicanus instantly focused on Reginald. "...Bring him up," Magicanus replied after a moment, then seemed to consider something. "Then go take the rest of the day...no, the rest of the week off."

"Yes, sir," Reginald said nervously, retreating back through the door.

_Damn it, _Magicanus thought as he grinded his teeth in frustration. _What does he want?_

After a few minutes of waiting, the door finally opened again. In walked a tall, slim male vampire with unusually tanned skin (for a vampire) and a pure black eye wearing a black cloak with intricate designs made of red thread over a blood-red tunic and black pants, a white eye-patch over his right eye, and a black circle around his short red hair. Behind him, Reginald was already scurrying down the hall towards the stairs, and Magicanus couldn't blame him. Even on the other side of the room, which was large enough to fit three cars side-by-side, Magicanus could feel the vampire's dark and deathly aura that, while not completely evil, was definitely dangerous and frightening.

"Greetings, Magicanus," the vampire said with a light smile that slightly masked his dark aura. "It's good to see you."

"Hello, Triumvir Tod," Magicanus replied, getting up out of his chair. "What brings you here?"

"What makes you think that I need a reason to visit friends?" the vampire said as he stepped forward, and it took all the portal master had to not back away from the reaper as more of his aura passed over the room.

"I don't consider us friends," Magicanus said sternly, glaring at the Triumvir. "Now, what do you want?"

"Sheesh, and I thought I was once cold," Tod said, rolling his eyes as he took a seat in the chair on the other side of the desk. "Very well. If you must know, I came here to talk to you about some information regarding an event that happened about ten years ago. I think that you know what I'm speaking of."

Magicanus, despite sighing with relief, nodded grimly. "The 'Skylander Slayer Number 5' case," he said, grimacing as he remembered that horrible day. "One of the few cases in all the history of Skylands where a Skylander died. Not just one though. That day, four Skylanders died, and what's worse is that the murderer was never found. It's hard to forget something that you have nightmares about every time you fall asleep. What about it?"

"Well, as you know, Grim Creeper was one of the Skylanders there that day," Tod replied, his smile dropping from his face. "And while we automatically should be thankful that anyone survived that day, I am already thankful that it was a reaper, who could easily sense and memorize the murderer's soul pattern."

"A lot of good that does considering he entered a traumatized state of silence after what happened," Magicanus responded sarcastically.

"I don't really blame him," the Triumvir said. "The loss of Smolderdash was like a punch in the gut for him. I remember how he was always so talkative before that day. It was almost like he was living in a dream of utter optimism, then he got a taste of reality so horrible, not even his cheerful nature could handle it. Anyway, yesterday I met up with him for lunch, as I often do with reapers in high positions. And when I did, he spoke."

"He did?" the portal master said with surprise, his eyes widening as he leaned forward subconsciously. "What did he say?"

"He said, and I quote," Tod replied. "'When I fought with the Skylanders Slayer that day, I felt something strange about his soul. It was almost as though there were two souls within his body, one violent and vengeful, and the other an undead soul with a desire to return to someone'."

The room fell silent as Magicanus contemplated what the Triumvir said. When he next spoke, it was in a whisper. "You don't think..."

Tod nodded his head reluctantly. "I'm afraid so. We weren't dealing with some ordinary serial killer that day. I am afraid that the person who killed those Skylanders, who murdered one of the Skylander's most valued allies, who caused two Skylanders to retire due to an inability to handle the loss, and got a woman in an asylum was none other than a body-thief."

"But the only case of successful creating a body-thief in the entire history of Skylands was the Outlands experiment, Prototype-A Legendary Entity One, also known as..." Magicanus said, trailing away as Tod finished sentence.

"Project Paleo."

A/N

A/N

**And that my friends is how you make a freaking awesome cliff-hanger.**

"It wasn't really that much of a cliff-hanger."

**Shut up Foaly, you know practically nothing about writing.**

"Well, I wouldn't say I knew nothing..."

**PRACTICALLY NOTHING!** O_O  
**Anyway, sorry for the long wait. I hope you all look out for my next chapter**

A Shadow's Whisper

**Thank you to everyone who support me on this story, and until next time Stay Magical!**

**EDIT: I have decided to officially change Sparx's name to Spark to avoid confusion between him and the dragonfly, Sparx. Also, to those who commented that Skylanders can't be killed, you should know that I am planning on explaining that later on. Just please be patient.**


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